Chapter 1: Summary of survey findings

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Sexual harassment: Serious business

1.1 Background
1.2 Key findings
1.3 Recommendations

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1.1 Background

The Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) conducted a national telephone survey between July and September 2008 to investigate the nature and extent of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. Two thousand and five telephone interviews were conducted with people aged 18 to 64.^[1] The sample of survey respondents was representative of the Australian population by age, gender and area of residence. The survey is based on a similar national telephone survey conducted by the Commission in 2003.

The aims of the survey were to find out:

the prevalence of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces
the types of sexual harassment experienced in Australian workplaces
the nature of sexual harassment, including characteristics of those who experience harassment, characteristics of harassers and characteristics of workplaces where harassment occurs
how sexual harassment is reported and the outcomes of complaints
trends in the nature and extent of sexual harassment in Australia between 2003 and 2008.

1.2 Key findings

Sexual harassment continues to be a problem in our workplaces, despite some improvement since 2003^[2]

The 2008 survey found that 22% of women and 5% of men aged 18-64 have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in their lifetime, compared to 28% of women and 7% of men in 2003.
Around one in three women in Australia aged 18-64 have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. The majority of sexual harassment continues to be experienced in the workplace (65%).
Nearly half of those who have been sexually harassed in the last five years report that it has also happened to someone else in the same workplace.
Over one in ten Australians have witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace in the last five years.
4% of Australians have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the last five years, compared to 11% in 2003.

There is a lack of understanding about what sexual harassment is

Around one in five (22%) respondents who said they had not experienced ‘sexual harassment’^[3] then went on to report having experienced behaviours that may in fact amount to sexual harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). For example:
- 5% reported behaviour(s) that included physical harassment such as unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing, inappropriate physical contact, or actual or attempted rape or assault.
- 10% reported being subject to unwelcome sexually suggestive comments or jokes that made them feel offended.
- 9% reported being subject to unwelcome intrusive questions about their private life or physical appearance that made them feel offended.

The large majority of sexual harassment goes unreported to employers and other bodies

The number of people who have formally reported or made a complaint after experiencing sexual harassment has significantly decreased over the last five years.^[4]
Only 16% of those who have been sexually harassed in the last five years in the workplace formally reported or made a complaint, compared to 32% in 2003.
For those who did not make a complaint:
- 43% did not think it was serious enough
- 15% were fearful of a negative impact on themselves
- 21% had a lack of faith in the complaint process
- 29% took care of the problem themselves.

Sexual harassment includes a range of behaviours, both physical and non-physical

For survey respondents who experienced sexual harassment in the last five years:
- the most common type of sexual harassment reported was unwelcome sexually suggestive comments or jokes that made the respondent feel offended (56%)
- around one in three (31%) reported some kind of physical harassment, including unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing, inappropriate physical contact, or actual or attempted rape or assault
- around one in five said they were subjected to sexually explicit emails or SMS messages
- women were more likely to experience physical sexual harassment, compared to men. 35% of women reported some kind of physical harassment, compared to 25% of men.

Sexual harassment is a problem for all employers – small, medium and large

In the 2008 survey, there was an even spread of employer size among those who had experienced sexual harassment in the last five years – 39% worked for large employers, 30% medium employers and 31% small employers.^[5] This is a similar finding to the 2003 survey.

1.3 Recommendations

The findings of the 2008 national telephone survey bring attention to six key areas for action to reduce the incidence and impact of sexual harassment. These are:

Prevention and reporting of sexual harassment
Increasing reporting of sexual harassment
Better legal protection from sexual harassment
Monitoring of sexual harassment
Better support for victims of sexual harassment
Further research on sexual harassment

Area for action	Recommendations
1. Prevention of sexual harassment	Pre-employment education 1.1 State and territory education departments should introduce targeted education programs in secondary schools to increase knowledge and understanding of sexual harassment in the workplace, and build skills to enable employees to respond to sexual harassment. These could be: built into curriculae which addresses employment relations, including general bullying and harassment, pay and working conditions and/or career education built into the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and Children’s school program on respectful relationships.
	Employer education on responsibilities and liability 1.2 The Australian Human Rights Commission should update and promote Effectively preventing and responding to sexual harassment: A Code of Practice for Employers, for employers and human resource professionals to increase knowledge of best practice sexual harassment prevention and response frameworks. 1.3 Employer groups and associations should promote the Effectively preventing and responding to sexual harassment: A Code of Practice for Employers amongst their membership.
	Employer policies and training 1.4 Employers should comply with the Commission’s, Effectively preventing and responding to sexual harassment: A Code of Practice for Employers with particular reference to: developing and implementing a formal sexual harassment policy providing regular training to employees monitoring the incidence of sexual harassment and reviewing the effectiveness of policies through regular workplace audits. 1.5 The Australian Government should fund the Australian Human Rights Commission to work with relevant Australian Government agencies and small business representative groups to develop and promote the use of specific sexual harassment training guidelines for small business.
	Sharing knowledge of good practice in sexual harassment prevention 1.6 The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency should keep an online database of good practice sexual harassment policies, prevention programs and practices for sharing amongst employers.
2. Reporting of sexual harassment	Reporting of sexual harassment in the workplace 2.1 Every employer – small, medium and large - should have a sexual harassment complaints procedure readily accessible to employees, as set out in the Commission’s Effectively preventing and responding to sexual harassment: A Code of Practice for Employers.
2. Reporting of sexual harassment	Complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission 2.2 The Australian Government should increase funding to ensure the Australian Human Rights Commission is adequately resourced to (i) continue to provide information to ensure people understand the law and rights and responsibilities under the law and (ii) ensure the ongoing provision of an efficient and effective complaint service.^[6]
3. Better legal protection from sexual harassment	Senate and Legal Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) in eliminating discrimination and promoting gender equality.^[7] 3.1 The Australian Government should adopt the recommendations contained in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s submission to the Senate and Legal Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) in eliminating discrimination and promoting gender equality. In particular the Act should be amended as follows: In Stage One (for immediate introduction) Amend the reasonable person standard in the definition of sexual harassment so as to include a reference to the individual circumstances and characteristics of the victim. Extend coverage of sexual harassment to better protect workers from sexual harassment by customers, clients and other persons with whom they come into contact in connection with their employment Extend sexual harassment protection to all students regardless of their age. Extend sexual harassment to provide protection to students from all staff members and adult students, not just those at their own education institution. In Stage Two (for introduction within three years) Consider enacting a free standing prohibition against sexual harassment in public life. Consider imposing a positive duty to avoid sexual harassment.
4. Monitoring of sexual harassment	Monitoring sexual harassment in the workplace 4.1 The Australian Government should fund the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency or the Australian Human Rights Commission to develop an audit kit to assist employers to monitor the incidence of sexual harassment.
4. Monitoring of sexual harassment	National data collection and monitoring 4.2 The Australian Government should fund the Australian Human Rights Commission to repeat its national telephone survey every five years in order to track trends in the nature and extent of sexual harassment. The survey should use questions based on the definition of sexual harassment and questions based on specific behaviours to track trends in the level of understanding of sexual harassment.
5. Better support for those who experience sexual harassment	Support for employees in the workplace 5.1 Employers should ensure that, where the employer already provides an employment assistance program, the employer offers the program to employees who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.
	Increase capacity of other support services to provide support to victims of sexual harassment 5.2 Support services such as working women’s centres, women’s and men’s counselling services, women’s legal services and sexual assault services should be provided specific funding to increase their capacity to provide support to victims of sexual harassment.
6. Further research on sexual harassment	6.1 Australian researchers should undertake further research to examine: (a) Organisational policies and practices which are most effective in preventing and responding to sexual harassment. (b) The nature of workplace contexts and cultures where sexual harassment occurs. (c) The use, effectiveness, accessibility and experience of workplace and external complaints processes in remedying sexual harassment. (d) The experience of sexual harassment among employees of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, employees with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees and gay and lesbian employees. (e) The experience of sexual harassment among employees under the age of 18. (f) The longer term impacts and outcomes of sexual harassment on victims, such as future employment opportunities, and effects on family and peer dynamics.

References

^[1] Please see Appendix A for a full explanation of the methodology. Individuals under 18 did not qualify for the national telephone survey as permission from parents or guardians would be required for their participation.
^[2] The incidence of sexual harassment reported here is based on asking respondents whether they had personally experienced sexual harassment according to the legal definition. These figures do not include the incidence of specific sexual harassment behaviours.
^[3] Based on being provided the definition of sexual harassment from the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
^[4] This includes complaints within workplaces and to external agencies such as the state and territory equal opportunity commissions and the Australian Human Rights Commission.
^[5] For the purposes of this survey, large employers are defined as more than 100 employees, medium employers are 26-100 employees and small employers are less than 25 employees. However, it should be noted that the Australian Bureau of Statistics defines small employers as having 1-19 employees, medium employers as having 20 – 199 employees and large employers as having over 200 employees.
^[6] This was recommended in the Commissions submission to the Senate and Legal Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) in eliminating discrimination and promoting gender equality (Recommendation 39).
^[7] The full submission can be found at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/legal/submissions/2008/20080901_SDA.html#3

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